Before I became a County Councillor, I did not believe that the Leader of Hampshire County Council would deliberately set out to undermine and misrepresent me. How wrong I was!

As most local people know, I have been campaigning to keep bus services running in my area. The village of Marchwood is particularly reliant on buses, evidenced by large numbers of villagers who turned up at public meetings to discuss the bus cuts and lots and lots of people who signed my petition.

The petition said just three things :

1) I’m a resident of the village and agree a full bus service is vital to the village.
2) I call upon Hampshire County Council not to reduce funding for the bus services through the village
3) If any cuts are planned, I expect Hampshire County Council to fully consult with all those likely to be affected.

So – what was the response of Conservative Leader, Cllr Ken Thornber?
He writes to all those who signed the petition claiming that the coupon contains inaccurate comments! What, I ask, is inaccurate about any of the three comments? All three points are perfectly valid.

Perhaps it was significant that Cllr. Thornber hasn’t copied me the letter he has written to all those signing the petition. It was handed to me by a puzzled resident who couldn’t understand in what way the coupon contains inaccurate comments.

Under just the sort of political pressure applied through Focus leaflets, public meetings and petitions, the Conservatives have decided to use £35,000 of public money to protect some services. I doubt this will be enough. I will be using my Chairmanship of the Marchwood Bus Services Focus group to try and ensure we keep as many of these vital services going as we can.